


Day 5: Time

by Night_StormCaptain



Series: Pidge Ship Week [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Future AU, M/M, Shatt, Twenty Years Later, but I was having too much fun, kallura, pidge ship week, plance, this was supposed to be a lot shorter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-24
Updated: 2017-09-24
Packaged: 2019-01-04 16:20:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12172449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Night_StormCaptain/pseuds/Night_StormCaptain
Summary: It has been twenty years since the end of the war, and Commander Katie Holt has no room in her life for Voltron or romance... or so she believes.





	Day 5: Time

Commander Katie Holt, the Galaxy Garrison’s foremost researcher and programmer, tapped away at her computer in her office with the lights off, as was the case more often than not.  Gone were the days of charging across the universe as a Paladin of Voltron.  Now her job was to update Earth’s sadly lacking technology enough for her home planet to connect with the rest of the galaxy.  Her job was interesting enough, she supposed, and it was definitely important, but even twenty years after the end of the war, it still felt like a bit of a letdown.

  _Knock.  Knock.  Knock._

 “Go away!”  Whoever it was, they could wait until her current project was finished.

 “Commander Holt, this is important!”   _Iverson._ She wondered what the headmaster of the academy could possibly want with her.

 “Come back tomorrow,” Holt griped.

 “But Piiiidge!” whined a younger voice -- the one voice at the Garrison that could have changed her mind.

 “Fine, you can come in,” Holt relented.  “Just keep it short, and leave Iverson outside.”

 The door creaked open, and in came a boy of fifteen with a slight build, dark skin, pure white hair, and triangular violet markings edging his eyes.  Though small for his age, he was already taller than Holt.  Closing the door behind himself, he got straight to the point.  “You haven’t been using your communicator, have you.”  It was more an accusation than a question.

 “I had to take it apart temporarily to study the components,” Holt apologized.  “Why?”  It seemed a strange question when she hadn’t heard from the Castle in years.

 Alex Kogane held out his own Altean communicator.  “Mom needs you.”

 Immediately Holt was on high alert.  Taking the communicator from Alex, she brought up the holographic screen to see Allura looking very agitated indeed.  “Hello, Pidge,” said the princess.

“Allura,” Holt greeted.  “What is this about?”

Allura cut straight to the chase.  “We need Voltron.  There’s no time to explain.  We’ve been trying to get hold of you for days.”

“We?” Holt inquired, expecting it to mean Allura, Keith, and possibly Coran.

Allura pressed a button and the camera zoomed out to reveal Keith, Coran, Hunk, Lance, Shiro, and even Matt.  “Yes.  We.”

Holt scowled.  “Voltron is in the past.  I don’t have time to chase down my teenage years when I have an important project to finish.”

Allura opened her mouth to protest, but Keith beat her to it.  “This isn’t about you.  This is about the universe, which needs saving again.  It’s not up for debate.”

Holt sighed.  “Okay, but just this once.  What are your coordinates?  I can have a ship there within a few days.”

“We don’t have time for that,” Allura insisted.  “Lance?”

“Already on it.”  Lance winked at her, as smooth as ever, and headed for the Blue Lion’s hangar.  “See you soon, Pidgey-Pidge.”

Holt shut off the communicator.  “Thanks, Alex.”  Alex nodded and opened his mouth to say something, but Holt cut him off.  “You’re not coming.”

“Why not?”

“If Allura needs Voltron, that means it’s dangerous out there.  Besides, you’ve got school to think about.”

Alex set his jaw stubbornly, and Holt was reminded forcefully of herself at that age.  “That never stopped you.”

Holt laughed aloud.  “True enough.  Fine, take it up with your parents.  I won’t stop you.”

After what felt like a year but was probably only five minutes, an alarm began to blare.  Holt burst from her office, followed shortly by Alex, and charged through the halls down to the main level and out into the desert surrounding the Garrison.  Military personnel had surrounded an alien craft with an unusual design -- it was styled after a robotic blue lion, of all things.

The Lion’s mouth opened, and Holt burst through the line of soldiers to run in.  “Commander!” one of them cried.  “What are you doing?”

“No time to explain!” she called cheerfully over her shoulder, feeling more alive than she had in years.  Alex pounded up the ramp after her, and Blue’s mouth closed, depositing them both in the cockpit.

“Hey, Pidge,” Lance said with an enormous grin.  “Long time no see.”

Holt found herself at a loss for words.  What do you say to the sweetheart you haven’t spoken with in two decades?  “It’s Commander Holt these days.  Or Katie.”

Lance laughed and launched Blue, leaving the soldiers open-mouthed on the ground.  “You’ll always be Pidge to me, and I think the rest of Team Voltron agrees.”

“I call her Pidge,” Alex offered, and Lance seemed to notice him for the first time.

“You little sneak,” Lance accused, smirking.  “Looks like you’re just as much of a rule-breaker as your old man.”

“And that’s a problem why, exactly?”  Alex looked exactly like Keith always had whenever he did something impulsive.

Lance took one hand off the controls to give Alex a high five.  “It’s not.”

Holt -- or Pidge, now, as it seemed she was returning to her past -- leaned over Lance’s shoulder to watch what he was doing and felt a rush of nostalgia.  “Earth has advanced a lot, but I don’t think it’ll ever have anything as elegant as the Lions’ technology.”

Lance glanced away from the controls for a moment to meet Pidge’s eyes.  “It has you.”

 _Oh._ Pidge hoped she wasn’t blushing.  “Picking up right where you left off, I see,” she commented, trying to maintain her composure.

“Of course.”  Lance’s tone was equal parts earnest and mischievous.  “Why, is there a problem with that?”

Pidge allowed herself to lean into him, resting her head on his shoulder, but gave no reply.

Alex eyed the pair of them.  “Is this… are you two… why did nobody mention this?”

Pidge pulled away.  “It’s nothing.”   _I have a life, and it doesn’t have room for romance in it._ She tried to ignore the hurt expression on Lance’s face.

Tension hung in the air for the rest of the ride, and Pidge was extremely relieved when they finally docked at the Castle of Lions and headed up to the bridge to meet the others.

“Pidge!”  Pidge barely had time to prepare herself before Hunk enfolded her in a tight bear hug.  “It’s been so long!  How are you doing?”

As soon as she could breathe, Pidge gently extricated herself from Hunk’s grasp.  “I’m all right.  Hey, everyone.”

Her friends chorused a greeting.  Aside from Matt and Shiro, whom she saw regularly at family gatherings, it had been years since she had seen any of Team Voltron, which she now realized was a mistake.  “It’s been way too long,” she commented regretfully.

Suddenly Allura’s eyes widened.  “Why did you bring Alex with you?”

Alex answered for himself.  “I wanted to come home.  Besides, don’t you think I could learn more from Dad and all of you than the Garrison, anyway?”

Allura and Keith exchanged a glance.  “He’s got a point,” Keith finally conceded.

“Is dropping out of the Garrison just the popular thing to do these days?” Shiro complained.

Matt nudged his husband.  “Not everyone can be you.”

Before the team had a chance to get caught up with each other’s lives, Allura spoke up.  “I hoped I’d never have to say this again, but the universe needs Voltron.”

“Is it the Galra again?” Hunk asked.

Keith shook his head.  “Of course not!  The Galra are some of our greatest allies!”  He took a deep breath, then continued in a calmer tone.  “An inter-reality rift appeared in the Phrygis Quadrant a few quintants ago.  Only Voltron can close it.”

“How can you be sure of that?” Matt inquired.

“Because only Voltron can get close to it without being vaporized,” Keith explained impatiently.

“So let me get this straight,” said Pidge slowly.  “You want us to form Voltron for the first time in twenty years and try to figure out how to deal with something that has obliterated anything that gets close?”

Allura nodded grimly.  “If you’d rather not, I’m sure we can find someone else to--”

“Sounds like fun.”

* * *

“I’m picking up some unusual flares of quintessence,” Pidge reported.  “We must be getting close.”

“Any sign of those… creature things that infected Zarkon and Haggar?” Lance inquired. 

Pidge frowned.  “I don’t know if Green’s sensors can detect those, which kind of makes no sense now that I think about it.  I’ll have to make some modifications…”

“It sounds like you’re planning on staying with Voltron from now on,” Lance commented, his voice heartbreakingly hopeful.

“I meant for the next Green Paladin,” Pidge clarified, even though she hadn’t.   _Focus.  Just one mission, then the era of Voltron is over for good._ She had been relieved to be done at the end of the war, but now the thought made her sad.

“Everyone be on guard,” Shiro warned.  “It’s been a long time since we’ve formed Voltron, and we don’t know enough about what we’re dealing with to rush in headlong.”

“Looking at you, Keith,” Lance joked.

“I dunno,” Hunk protested.  “I think being married to Allura has mellowed him out.”

“If anything could mellow Keith out,” Pidge countered.

“Would you stop talking about me like I’m not here?”

“Everybody be quiet!”  The voice was Allura’s.  “We’re getting close.”

“Close enough to see it,” Keith pointed out, and Pidge realized he was right: through her viewport she could see a distant but rapidly approaching patch of brilliant light.  As they drew closer, she began to discern dark, indistinct shapes flitting across and through the patch of light, which she realized was easily the size of the teludav they had created to transport Zarkon’s flagship all those years ago.

“There’s no way we’ll survive getting close to that in our Lions,” said Shiro, and Pidge’s heart thrummed with excitement as she realized what he would say next.  “Form Voltron!”

It felt as natural as it had twenty years ago, the five Paladins perfectly in sync with one another.  A thrill ran through Pidge as her Lion, now in arm form, clicked into place in the mighty defender.  She heard Lance let out a whoop of pure joy.

“I’m a leg again!” Hunk cried delightedly.

Its separate parts moving in perfect harmony, Voltron soared forward toward the rift. As they approached, the dark shapes coalesced into a purplish blob that seemed to suck all the light from its surroundings.  The blob darted toward Voltron, slicing at it like some ghastly self-propelled weapon.

“Form sword!” Shiro commanded.  Pidge heard Keith plunge his bayard into the special slot in his Lion that always appeared when a weapon was needed.  The hands joined together for a moment, a blade of energy appearing between them and swiftly hardening into Voltron’s deadly weapon.  Keith swung the blade at the dark entity, creating bright flashes wherever blade met beast.

As Voltron’s left arm, Pidge wouldn’t need to be completely focused on the battle unless the shield was needed, so she used the time to study the rift, sifting through all the information she had stored in the Green Lion’s computer as a teenager.  The information on rifts was sadly lacking.  The rift where they had discovered the comet made from the same material as Voltron had been quite small, and had closed itself as soon as the comet was removed.  King Alfor had closed the rift on the Galra home planet by destroying the planet itself.  Neither option seemed viable, and Pidge cursed under her breath.  If only they had more information!

Pidge’s attention snapped back to the present as Voltron was thrown backward by the rift creatures.  Forming the shield to give herself a bit of extra time, she hastily explained her findings.  “Any ideas?”

“You’re supposed to be the idea guy,” Hunk protested.  “Lady.  Whatever.”

“We don’t have enough information!” Pidge practically snapped.

“Actually, I think we might.”  She could hear the faintest hint of Lance’s characteristic smirk in his voice.  He proceeded to present a plan that was so crazy, it just might succeed.

Pidge spoke without thinking.  “Lance, I love you.”

Stunned silence.

After a tick that stretched into eternity, Shiro broke the tension.  “What are we waiting for?  Let’s do it!”

“We’ll finish this conversation later,” Lance declared.

Keith’s bayard was already active, of course, but at a signal from Shiro, each of the others inserted their own bayard into the slots to form Voltron’s largest, most powerful sword.  With a bit of experimentation, the Paladins found that if they swiped from the rift outward, it widened, but if they sliced inward, it left streaks of darkness where regular space returned.  A few slashes severed the rift into three separate scars in the fabric of space, each small enough to pop closed on its own within five ticks.

“You’re a genius, Lance,” Keith declared, then added, “Wow.  I never thought I’d hear myself say that.”

“Woohoo!  Lance saves the day once again!”

* * *

“Do you want me to take you back to Earth, Pidge?”

Pidge wasn’t sure.  She appreciated Allura’s offer, and now that they had closed the rift, the option was definitely on the table, though she wasn’t sure how much it appealed to her.  “I don’t know,” she finally said.  “I mean, aren’t the others going back?  Hunk has his restaurant, and Shiro and Matt have built a life together…”

“I’m staying here,” Hunk asserted.  “Can you believe that for most of his life, Alex has been eating either food goo or what passes for food at the Garrison?  I mean, that’s just criminal!”

“I eat real food whenever we stop on a planet,” Alex protested, 

Hunk waved him off.  “Details.”

Matt put a hand on Pidge’s shoulder, and she was glad to have her brother there.  “Shiro and I will go wherever you do,” he assured her.  “I went three years without my sister once, and I’d rather not repeat the experience.”  Shiro nodded in agreement.

“Can I talk to you for a minute?  Like, alone?”  Lance seemed impervious to the significant looks everyone was giving him and Pidge as they left the bridge together.

As soon as the door shut behind them, Pidge stopped and turned to face Lance.  “So, what did you need?”

“Earlier, when we were closing the rift… you said you loved me.”

Pidge nodded.  There was no taking back what she had said.

When it became obvious that she wasn’t going to say anything, Lance continued hesitantly.  “Did… did you mean it?”

Pidge paused, considering the question.  In the old days of Voltron, the answer would have been an easy yes.  Now, though, she had her job, her duty to her planet… _Do I have anything holding me back that truly matters to me?_ With no small amount of surprise, she realized she didn’t.  “Of course I meant it.”

Lance still looked nervous for some reason.  “In that case, I have a question for you-- something I wish I would have asked you twenty years ago.  I feel like I lost twenty years of my life not asking, and it’s high time--”

“Lance.  You’re rambling.”

“Sorry.  Anyway…”  Lance dropped to one knee, and although she had sort of guessed it was coming, Pidge’s breath caught in her throat.  “Pidge -- Katie -- will you marry me?”

Pidge opened her mouth to respond and found herself blindsided by a sob.  Laughing and crying all at once, she pulled Lance to his feet and into a hug.  “Yes,” she murmured into his shirt, so softly even she could barely hear it.  “Yes,” she said, pulling back to meet his ocean-colored eyes.  “Yes!” she cried, so loudly and enthusiastically she felt sure the whole galaxy could hear.

Lance cupped her face in one hand, closing his eyes and leaning down to press his lips to hers.  Threading her arms around his neck, she kissed him back, and if Zarkon himself had come back from the dead and tried to attack her, she wouldn’t have noticed or cared.  This was right; this was _home,_ and maybe it was twenty years too late… or maybe, just maybe, it came right on time.


End file.
